The ASUS VivoBook series has given us some excellent affordable laptops. In this ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA-NH77 review, we look at another budget laptop from the same series that is a good fit for students, home users, and other light users. With a price tag of under $700, this ASUS laptop brings a horde of impressive specs.
When you are on a budget, you have a lot of notebooks at your disposal. The problem is that each laptop will have some compromise, making you look at another device. This ASUS laptop we have here does very well when offering a banquet of features, which is perfect for budget users. So is this laptop worth the price? Is this laptop a good choice for those who work from home? Let’s find out the answers to these questions and more in the full review below.
ASUS VivoBook 15 (F512DA-NH77)
Specifications:
- 15.6″ FHD
- AMD R7
- 8GB RAM
- 512GB SSD
The ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA-NH77 laptop is aimed at people who don’t need much power daily. This is why we picked this laptop as a good choice
ASUS VivoBook 15 (F512DA-NH77) Review
VivoBook – Design
The design of this VivoBook takes a very similar design language that we observe in other budget laptops. The laptop is made from plastic and has a nice grey finish. Though this is an affordable laptop, ASUS has not achieved the quality of plastic. The laptop is durable and can handle a bit of physical flexing. You also don’t hear creaking when opening and closing the laptop.
The laptop is also an excellent choice for those who want a portable device. At 3.5lbs, this laptop is one of the most portable laptops in the 15.6“ laptop category. You can easily slide this laptop into your backpack and carry it on like nothing ever happened. This portability factor alone makes this a perfect laptop for students. If you travel a lot, then this laptop also makes a lot of sense.
Keyboard & Touchpad
Let’s talk about the keyboard. We have a full-size keyboard on this laptop which is nice. The numeric pad on the right side allows you to work with numbers without reaching the top row every time. If you work a lot with numbers, you will appreciate this. The keyboard also was a pleasure to use, as it comes with decent travel and an excellent layout.
The keyboard also comes with backlighting which means you can work with this laptop even in the darkest places. There is a bit of bleeding in backlighting, but at this price point, we can’t complain. The trackpad on this device is pretty sweet and works just as advertised.
One of the biggest selling points of this laptop is the presence of a fingerprint reader. This fingerprint reader allows you to log into your user profile with just the tap of your finger. You can register the finger of your choice, and from that point onwards, you don’t have to type the password and can tap your way in. This feature can also help you encrypt specific files with the help of third-party applications.
Display
The display on this VivoBook is a 15.6“ display. This LED-backlit display comes with full HD resolution and has a NanoEdge bezel. One of the best things about this display is its design. ASUS has significantly reduced the size of the bezels, giving them a more modern look. As a result, the screen-to-body ratio has also improved to 88%, giving the laptop a much smaller footprint.
The display also does well when it comes to picture quality. The display’s contrast ratio is decent, resulting in good blacks and whites. The greyscale performance of the display has not been backed by any means, but there is a lot of scope for improvement. This display is perfectly suitable for streaming your favorite content on the web and also for a bit of gaming.
The audio coming out of the display is not fantastic by any means. Compared to the audio from other budget laptops, this one does just as good, if not better. The speakers of the device can quickly fill a small room without any issues. If you are serious about sound quality, we recommend getting a dedicated set of speakers for much better sound.
Performance
The processor powers this ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA-NH77 laptop is an AMD R7 3700U processor. This is a mid-range processor from AMD, and it comes with a base clock speed of 2.30 GHz. The processor gets a CPUMark benchmark score of around 8000 and puts itself in mid-range to upper mid-range chips.
This AMD processor comes with a maximum clock speed of 4 GHz, so you will have a lot of power at your disposal when you need it. Wrapped-up runs everyday applications fine without any hiccups. Even when you need to do some heavy lifting, the processor handles it nicely, which is excellent for a budget laptop.
The memory department on this laptop comes loaded with 8 GB of RAM. The Ram is of DDR four type and has a clock speed of 2400 MHz. This memory enables you to run several applications simultaneously without bringing any lag to the system’s performance. You will be able to improve your overall productivity without any issues.
Storage And Graphics
One of the best things about this ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA-NH77 laptop is its storage. We have 512 GB solid-state drive storage, which is just amazing. First, we must appreciate ASUS for including a high storage option as a solid-state drive. A solid-state drive brings excellent performance improvements all across the board.
In a budget laptop like this one, the difference between using a solid-state drive and a mechanical hard drive is day and night. The SSD on this laptop has perfect reading and writing speeds which means you’ll be able to move data in and out of this laptop at high speeds. The SSD loads the operating system in a flash; the same can be said for other applications.
You do not get a dedicated graphics card on this laptop. The integrated graphics card is an AMD Radeon one, and it does a pretty good job when it comes to meeting your everyday graphics requirements. As for gaming is concerned, you will be able to play some light games and some mid-range games that aren’t graphically demanding. If you’re looking to play the latest and greatest games, you are looking at the wrong laptop. If you are a gamer or searching for a reliable gaming laptop, you should look at the Acer Predator Helios.
Battery Life And Connectivity
The battery life of this laptop is average at best. With light use, this laptop can last about 6 to 7 hours, which is not great. But in this price range, similar laptops perform much worse, which gives this ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA-NH77 laptop an edge. When working on something heavy, you can expect this battery life to go down to around 2 to 3 hours.
There are a lot of connectivity options in this ASUS VivoBook laptop. You get a USB 3.1 Type-C port, a USB 3.2 Type-C port, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, and an audio jack. All of these ports are excellent when it comes to external connectivity and data transfer.
The laptop also comes with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. The former gives you access to high-speed internet, while the latter manages reliable external connectivity with external devices.
ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA-NH77 Review – Wrap Up
The ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA-NH77 laptop is aimed at people who don’t need much power daily. This is why we picked this laptop as a good choice for students and other light users. With a mid-range processor, sufficient memory, and fast storage, this laptop can deliver serious performance when you demand it. The price of this laptop is also very affordable, making it even more attractive. If you’re looking for a cheap laptop that doesn’t cost you a lot of money, this one should be a solid choice.